basic sympathies to be translated into voles for Labour, it has to present a confident. socialist alternative. Labour, unfortunately. with the publication of its policy review short- ly after Thatcher's tenth anniversary, when the Tories are at last looking vulnerable, shows no restructuring there has been of working class and individual relation to economy, it remains superficial and transitory. What matters is the underlying relationship to the economy - in large working class - which, for the last three Nevertheless, attitodes do not even deler- mine voting behaviour, much less social class. Whatever shift in attitudes favourable to capi- tal there has been, and whatever peripheral Thatcherite cconomic concepts. elections, has voted them in. sign of coming up with one. un BBC television documentary on "Thatcher's Seven out of ten would pay more tax for better agreeing that "trade unions are essential to So there are encouraging signa to be read in these results - but like much sociological tain shifts towards acceptance of more servative (and a majority of trade unionists have attitudes consistently find that the values of Thatcherism are shared by even fewer people One of the latest surveys, conducted for a children", showed that 62 per cent of people questioned thought that the ideal for themselves and their family would be 'a country in which public interests and a more managed economy are more important.' Only 30 per cent would prefer 'a country in which private interests and with a four-to-one majority material they only hold good until the nex! sur- vey; and other, similar studies have shown cer- not voted Labour), polls and surveys of social than the numbers who actually vote Conserva- a free market conomy are mote important. protect workers' interests" public services, 1992: a C ะบ Whilst the fact remains that since 1979 a quarters of all land, Since 1979 the income of and interest rate rises. The poor, neadless to say, have got poorer. 9.4 million people in Britain befit level. Their numbers increased by 55 per In many ways, given ten years of Tory rule und Labour's uscless opposition, it's actually surprising that people aren't more Thatcherite. majority of the working class have voted Con- good"). Sections (and from time to tinie even a majority) of the working class then, as now - as they always will - have allied themselver with the ruling class, insofar as they have voted for their parties, or they haven't challenged their It is also a salutory reminder to note that posed to have become middle class, that the richest two per cent in this country still own 82 percent of all company shares and nearly three the richest one per cent has gone up by a stag. gering 346 per cent as a result of tax cuts, salary have an income at or helow supplementary bo- during the last len years when we are all sup cent between 1979 and 1985 alone. m
ferent forms and to different extents in each of ces that will be created. This will hit black and are likely to experience if the present implica- tions of 1992 go unchallenged highlight the agenda of worker exploitation inherently em- bodied in the Single European Act. At the same time, the appeal to racist and imperialist fer- prominent feature of the build up to 1992, stems from the intrinsically class biased nature munity in the EC, regardless of whether they have become EC' nationals or not, operate in dit- "unskilled' working class will widen, with the former having interests protected and finding it Unskilled workers will be left behind in the lechmology drive and in the regional imbalan- The sechacks that black workers in the EC vour, which will become an increasingly Controls on the black and migrant com- the member states. Their fundamental ele- Divisions between the 'skilled and SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 16 June 1989 it casier to cross boundaries in scarch of work. Top Eurocrat Jacques Delors at the TUC women workers particularly hard. of the Europcan Community: tion policy at its borders. labour market - in the form of Europe's black, immigrant and migrant workforce. Tied to this as hetween the EC and its neo colonies - Delors, with much enthusiasm at its 1988 con- and a significant weakening of the ahility of It is in this context that we must view the need, now more important than ever, for fickible and carily expendable sector of the are the means by which a supply of such "marginal" labour is to be regulated - both within the EC through internal controls, as well through the operation of a common immigra tion (which received much less media attention) ther concentration of economic and industrial power in the hands of multinational companies memher states to intervene in their own capitalist states to maintain a cheap, very gress, while at the same time passing a resolu- stating that "the internal market represents a fur- Black communities first to playground for Europe's capitalists tleground for Europe's workers. In Britain the Trade Union Congress received the president of the Europcan Commission, Jacques The reality is that this extended will also mean an extended bat- suffer attacks pany or the state. economies". workers general. These workers, with little protection and few rights, will form the central plank in the nesses and industries operating in the EC will The increased competition among bust- also mean a fur greater concentration of wealth The other significant development of such an integrated capitalist market must undoubtedly he the freer use and ahuse of the flexible, un skilled labour provided hy migrant, immigrant and refugee workers and black workers in drive for minimum costs, either for the com- are currently gearing themselves up to European Market, coming into effect in 1992. However, while some EC leaders are keen to combine this single market with a single monetary policy, others - are more anxious to see this as an exer- cise in deregulation and free-market The Single European Market will in any event seck to minimise workers' gains by im- posing a downward pressure on wages and so. cial benefits, and exploiting massive: inc- qualities between workers in avert any Business communities across Europe take advantage of the vast profit- making possibilities of the Single notably Britain's Margaret Thatcher - in the hands of a few. collective retaliation. Page 28
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